


Paper Flowers

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [22]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dreamsharing, Fluff and Angst, Foreshadowing, Kylo Ren Has Feelings, Kylo Ren Has Issues, M/M, Missing Scene, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Or Is It?, Protective Poe Dameron, ambiguous situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:35:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29588718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Poe sees Kylo Ren again, in a dream.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Ben Solo, Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931056
Kudos: 3
Collections: Allbingo, Bad Day Collection





	Paper Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Exhaustion
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: Taken from “Imaginary” by Evanescence. Also, I was meaning to do this for a while.

It was in the cockpit en route to Kef Bir that Poe Dameron slept, and dreamed.   
  
***  
  
He was in the ruins of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy. That Poe knew. Even looking around, he could recognize the smoldering ruins, could recognize...well, just about everything about it. He could remember better times, now that he thought about it, going to see Ben in times gone by. Landing on the planet, and seeing Ben sprint up the hill. Dressed in white, not black.   
  
The figure dressed in black was all but nothing like the man that Poe had fallen in love with.   
  
“I didn’t expect both of us to come back here.”  
  
Poe spun around in that moment, cursing the fact that in his dream, he hadn’t brought his blaster. Then again, why would you bring weapons into a dream? Ben had, long ago, wished that he could pull Poe into his dreams. _“It would just...fit, having you in my dreams.”_  
  
“Is this some sort of Force Bond shit?” Poe said. “Just pulling us back here?”  
  
“Maybe it’s the will of the Force in a different way.” Ben was unmasked, the strange line of his jagged scar running down his face. Rey had cut him there, Ben had said when he and Poe were stranded together, in the same place that Han Solo had touched his face. "Maybe it’s trying to sway me back again.”  
  
“You could just come back, like a reasonable person,” Poe said.   
  
Ben looked pained. Then, “You’re assuming it isn’t too late for me, Poe. That was why I killed Han Solo. I thought it was too late for me to come back.” Then, “I was almost tempted to leave with Rey, in the throne room.”  
  
“And you just dug yourself deeper,” Poe muttered. Then, “Are you going to try and hurt me again? In my mind?”  
  
“Hurting you once was bad enough.” Ben said. His voice sounded unexpectedly soft, gentle. It was tender, almost like a facsimile of what lovers would say to each other. “I have a job to do. Tasks to fulfill. But...you’ve been brave so far.”  
  
“I don’t think I have. Too much.”  
  
***  
  
They sat in the grass, far from the scorched place where the Academy had burned. Then Poe spoke. “Did you kill them? Even when I heard that story from Luke, I knew it was all wrong...”  
  
“You know Luke’s a liar.”  
  
“I do."  
  
Ben’s mouth twisted. Then, “From a certain point of view, as a certain annoying old man would say, that’s true. From a certain point of view. I didn’t kill them directly. I didn’t draw my lightsaber and strike them down, but I failed to save them. I wasn’t fast enough to stop the storm. Ben Solo wasn’t fast enough.”  
  
“Don’t say that.” Even in spite of everything, Poe felt a sting of pity. Of wanting to protect Ben from his own doubts, his own regrets. “You’re not all-powerful.”  
  
“I should have been,” Ben said, and Poe could all but hear broken transparisteel in his voice.   
  
Poe reached up, ran a hand along the jagged scar on Ben’s face. Then, “It wasn’t your fault. Stars, it wasn’t your fault that Luke was a hypocrite. Ben...you can still come back. I was redeemed, Ben. You can be too.”  
  
Ben faltered. Then, “You believe in me, that much?”  
  
“Even after all this time.”  
  
***  
  
Poe woke in the cockpit, and saw the blue lines of hyperspace even as they continued further towards the Endor system. Towards Kef Bir. That was where they were supposed to go, in order to find the Wayfinder. Poe knew that it wouldn’t be an easy journey, especially with Ben on their tail.   
  
Poe didn’t know how it was going to end. Who would come out alive, who wouldn’t. Ideally, everyone would come out alive, but Poe was thirty-three. He wasn’t naive.  
  
 _Mama, watch over Ben,_ he thought. _Even after all he did to me, he's still my friend. The man I love._  
  
There was no answer in the cockpit, but Poe could swear that he felt a cool breeze tickling his hair. Shara was there, somewhere. Watching over them both, even if Poe couldn’t see her.


End file.
